1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a mobile articulatable tube bundle cleaner. More particularly, this invention relates to an essentially self-contained mobile tube bundle cleaner including an articulatable boom carrying a water delivery system connected with a variable speed, high volume, high pressure, positive displacement pump for jetting a high velocity, high volume stream of water from the water delivery system onto a tube bundle to be cleaned. By appropriate articulation of the boom, it is possible to orient the cleaning nozzle in all planes so that the shell side of a tube bundle can be cleaned from top to bottom. The nozzle head can be oriented directly into the bundle face allowing cleaning of the bundle ends and, with a special multi-lance system, can be used to rapidly and effectively clean the insides of the tubes of the tube bundle.
2. Prior Art
It has heretofore been the practice to clean tube bundles using a hand held and manually operated cleaning lance which is connected with a water source and a pump, such as a 150 horsepower diesel powered pump for delivering water through the lance gun at a pressure of about 5000 psi or less at a flow rate of about 10 gallons per minute or less. Since a lance gun of this type is designed to be held and operated manually, human capabilities limit both the pressure and the rate at which water can be delivered to the lance gun. The water line leading to the lance gun is normally equipped with a pressure relief valve and the operator of the gun is provided with a foot controlled actuator for turning water on and off. When the inside of the tubes of a tube bundle are to be cleaned, it is conventional practice to provide a second operator who stands at the face of the tube bundle and manually feeds the water lance into the tube to be cleaned while the operator of the lance gun progressively walks towards the face of the bundle. If, for any reason, such as, for example, the existence of a plug in the tube, the cleaning lance is immobilized and blocked, unless the operator of the lance gun immediately shuts off the water, excessive water pressure can rapidly build up in the line and can cause breakage of the equipment and, all too frequently, physical damage to the operators.
The inherent inefficiencies and limitations of this system are such that the cleaning of tube bundles can only proceed at a comparatively slow rate involving many man-hours of extremely hard physical labor.